DPR Completes Green Upgrade of San Diego Office

Redwood City-based DPR Construction reports that construction is now complete on its new company-owned San Diego regional headquarters. The 24,000-sq-ft office located in University City is designed to be Net Zero Energy and is pursuing LEED platinum certification.

Photo by David Hewitt/Anne Garrison Architectural Photography

Photo by David Hewitt/Anne Garrison Architectural Photography

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“We set out to transform a typical San Diego suburban office building into a cutting edge facility that respects the environment, our people and our culture,” says Jay Leopold, regional manager of DPR San Diego. “All of us feel we’ve hit a home run. We’re committed to redefining the market place, both in terms of tenant expectations and developer interest in rehabilitating and renovating otherwise nearly obsolete buildings into highly desirable and attractive spaces.

“There are an abundance of buildings just like this that are potentially problematic for their owners, but we believe they represent opportunity. There are things you can do with these buildings in San Diego that you can’t do downtown or in mid-rises, and we believe we’re building a solid business case for doing so.”

The DPR office contains 11 conference rooms including the circular Delta Room and a large training area, a 16-person video conference room and a space dedicated to building information modeling technology. In addition, the open office features over 14-ft exposed ceilings complete with scrims or material that hangs from the ceiling to defuse light, which are artistically designed to resemble the sails of boats.

The DPR Construction project team was comprised of Elizabeth Barrie, Jeff Cole, Jerry McElfresh and Mark Seidl. In addition, Jonathan Wood of Seattle-based Callison served as the architect of the project. Other consultants and designers included KEMA for LEED consultation; Hope Engineering for structural engineering; Latitude 33 Planning and Engineering for civil engineering; Howard Associates for landscape architecture; Bergelectric Corporation for electrical services; and Pacific Rim Mechanical for plumbing and mechanical services.

“We recreated our cultural commitment to a work space that is wide open and transparent, with work stations in lieu of offices,” adds Leopold. “With operable windows and skylights as well as glass garage doors to connect us to the outside, our cultural commitment to an open office environment is now supported by an office that is literally open to the environment.”

At the heart of the office sits the 14-ft wine bar, thoughtfully placed with the purpose of bringing staff members and outside guests together. The lobby area features four custom surfboards, each representing one of DPR’s four core values: integrity, enjoyment, uniqueness and ever forward.

To generate as much power as the building consumes, a 64 kilowatt AC photovoltaic system was installed. The solar panels are expected to produce enough power to offset the building’s energy consumption, annually.

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